Father Joseph Mohr, a parish priest in Oberndorf, Austria, composed a poem he called “Stille Nacht,” and brought it to a local organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, to see if he could write a tune for it. Gruber did. On this date in 1818, Mohr and Gruber debuted their song, Gruber on guitar, during a Christmas Eve Mass.

John Freeman Young translated it into English decades later, and published “Silent Night” in 1859.A lovely rendition of the song, by Klima

* * * *Enrico Caruso gave his final performance with The Metropolitan Opera, as Eléazar in La Juive, on this date in 1910.

* * * *Matthew Arnold was born on this date in 1822. Howard Hughes was born 110 years ago today. Ava Gardner was born on this date in 1922. The late Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister was born on this date in 1945. (He died on December 28.)